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Saturday, August 16, 2014

Esperase para Agosto

I can't believe that I'm saying
this, but Happy August!! Tomorrow, August 12, makes three months in Mexico, and
I am very proud to say that I have yet to be sunburned!! Huzzah!!

Alrighty, here's catch-up from last
week:

Last week's highlights:

-Somebody legit thought I was 17.

-The city buses here are super fun
and have all sorts of different stickers and decorations and stuff. I saw one
pass that said TRANSFORMERS across the windshield. All I could think was
"changechangechangechange!"

-For the very first time in my life
I ate octopus. I even saw some of the sucker things. I covered it in lime juice
(like everyone does to everything here) and it was uber tasty.

-Mexicans are super tough. I knew
this, but I just keep seeing it more and more. Like when one member had a
cut/burn thing on his arm and he just straight up put lime juice on it. Like It
Was Nothing!!

-One day while waiting for our food
I found myself randomly singing our National Anthem. Good news everyone: I
still love America. (As if I could stop.)

-One of our investigators wants to
close his Carneceria and open an Oxxo, which is kinda like a 7-Eleven without
the gas. He asked me if I wanted to work in it. Not my companion, just me. He
said I could split my time there and with the missionary work. I cannot even
begin to explain how hard my companion and I laughed.

-Testimony meetings here are fun
because:

-People go up just to
announce that they're engaged! And then close said announcement “in the Name of
Jesus Christ, etc.”

-Your investigator, who is
sitting with members and not with you, decides to go up to the pulpit…

-… and then calls you Senorita
Anderson…

-… and then offers a prayer
because he's not familiar with what a testimony meeting is.

-That awkward moment when you street
contact someone and they say "come over any time!" Then when you do
come over she doesn't remember you and says, "Are you from a religion? No
thanks." We laughed.

-Oh. My. Lanta. Mexican house
numbers and addresses. I'm becoming more and more convinced that people just
make up whatever number they want. "Meh, this is more or less close to my
neighbor's house number. We'll go with this." We were looking for a less
active member and the numbers went from 163 to 186, then 200 something. We were
looking for #171. I suggested to my companion that the houses had been
translated so we didn't have to worry about looking for them. We also laughed a
lot about this. The numbers are just so bizarre!

-Teaching kids is fun. We have an
11-year-old investigator who is super-excited and just, oh man, gold. I wish
every investigator could have his enthusiasm. Everyone would be active forever.
But he is 11, so explaining things to him is fun. Like the Godhead and how
Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have bodies but the Holy Ghost doesn't. We
spent a good chunk of time explaining “el Espíritu Santo” to him. Eventually he
got it and said "Oh! He's a spirit, so that's why he's called the Holy
Spirit!" Then when we talked about how he's invisible he said, "And
if we throw paint at him? Can we see him then?" We laughed and laughed and
laughed.

-He also told us he will be getting
married in the temple. Again, he is 11. And he sings Families Can Be Together Forever
all the time. And each time he sings it with a different tune. It's adorable
and drives my musical ear crazy.

-Don't write "triste
Satanás" (darn or stupid, Satan) in your scriptures. It's not missionary-like.
I didn't do that. Almost, but not, I did not. Yet. Just kidding, I won’t do
that.

Photos!

I am petitioning for Disney Princess
status. This butterfly stayed on my finger for a good 10-15 minutes of
walking.

Surprise! I got transferred to
Paris!!! Or not. But there's a random tower that looks like the Eiffel Tower in
the Elder's area, so naturally we had to go take pictures with it. For all of
you who guessed that I was going to France, here you go.

My companion and me. She is adorable
and a missionary machine and I love her. Also, she thinks I'm funny so that's
always a plus. :D

OK, about the title: Ever since I
got here people have told me that we are going to die of heat in August and
that it's miserable. Well, it's actually been really great and rained nearly
every day. It's not normal – last year it only rained two times in August – but
this year has been awesome and quite possibly the best month since I got here.
But sometimes we get a little bit wet from the downpour.